 I want to do these two movie reviews, we've got two movies to review, one that Charles Budd has paid me to review, so we have to get to that, that's once upon a time in Hollywood. And the other one is the Outpost, which I saw last night and I really wanted to talk to you about, like as soon as the movie ended, I wanted to get on and yell into the microphone. I mean, I highly recommend the movie. It's very unenjoyable, but it's an important movie. I was so angry. I was so infuriated by this movie. I was in tears at the end of it, from anger and frustration and just upset at the sheer evil that this movie reveals. Now the movie's based on a true story. I think it's made very well, particularly when you get into the action scenes, the actual battle. It's a true story of an outpost in Afghanistan in 2006, I think. It's an outpost in Afghanistan that is constantly attacked by the Taliban. And ultimately, there's a big battle between the Taliban and the American forces. And I have to say, the battle is very well done, very engaging, very suspenseful, the horror of war. But also the movie's really focused on the amazing heroism of these soldiers. So I think it's in 50 years, I think this is the battle where more soldiers, or maybe it's the unit where more soldiers received medals of honor, different medals from it than any other. So these guys were unbelievably heroic and they fought for each other and they tried to save each other's lives and they just heart wrenching and well done and well developed. Now why then am I so angry? This outpost was put in the middle of nowhere in order to help cultivate the villages of Afghanistan to try to buy their love away from the Taliban. The outpost was there in order to invest in infrastructure and schools and bribing the local chiefs to buy, as the movie repeatedly says, their hearts and minds so that they would oppose the Taliban. Americans are there not to defend America, not to defend American values, not to defend America, Americans rights, property, lives, they're there. I don't know what they're there for. They're there under doctrine, a doctrine promoted by people like General Petraeus, General McChrystal. McChrystal is actually identified in the movie as a source of some of this stuff. These generals that people on right and left hail as heroes. So in the movie there's a scene in which the Taliban is shooting down at the base from the hills and the soldiers that are being shot upon have to ask for permission to shoot back. And when they ask for permission, they're asked, can you identify the person shooting at you? You can't just shoot in the direction because you might hit civilians. You cannot defend yourselves in other words. And they were lectured upon that this is what General McChrystal has told them. These are the generals that our society elevates to godlike status, particularly among Republicans buying the hearts and minds of Afghans, to hell with American kids, to hell with their lives, commander after commander, this outpost is killed by the Taliban. And repeatedly the soldiers are told, you can't do anything about it. We have to be nice. We can't do anything about it. You have to be nice to the people here because if you get tough, you'll lose the hearts and minds. And we got to buy the hearts and minds because if we do, that's how we'll defeat the Taliban. And the Afghans keep telling them, this one Afghan keeps telling him, you know, the Taliban is coming for you. Now here's what really, really, really pissed me off. Again, true story. Apollo Zeus. Thank you. The outpost is in basically at the bottom surrounded by mountains. At some point one of the soldiers says, aren't we supposed to be at the top of the mountain? Where are we at the bottom? Surrounded by places where the Taliban can shoot down at them, unharmed snipers can just shoot at them. It will. Luckily, the Taliban have no sophisticated weapons. So most of it's just firing no watch, no defensive strategy, clearly placing this outpost in a position where they can only suffer casualties where they can only die where it's indefensible and are not provided with the kind of support to make it possible for them to defend themselves. Never mind when, never mind beat the enemy but defend themselves. These soldiers are basically placed naked and depend on chance and on luck in order to survive. It's disgusting that the military hierarchy in America would do such a thing. Why? So we can build some roads for the Afghans. At some point the Afghans bring a body of a young woman to the base and say, you guys killed her. And the Americans all know that they didn't kill her, that the Taliban killed her. But the Afghans bring the body because they know that if they accuse the Americans of killing her, the Americans will give them money. So the commander says, give them 3,500 bucks. And the soldier says, but we didn't do it. He says, doesn't matter. This will buy us peace. No. This buys you weakness. This creates the perception of weakness. I mean, this is much worse than Benghazi for a number of reasons, partially because this is, this is so obviously callous. This is so obviously uncaring of the lives of our children, uncaring of the lives of those Americans who volunteered to go fight for our values, for our defense of our country. And they're the ones who deserve protection. They're the ones who deserve the best equipment. They're the ones who deserve the rules of engagement that place their interests first and foremost. And yet they're told their lives are expendable. And for what? What are they dying for? I mean, we're leaving Afghanistan now, so it's the context is perfect. What the hell are they dying for? To buy the hearts of minds of people who don't want their hearts and minds bought by you, to squander American dollars, American dollars that fall into the enemy's hands. They just used to buy weapons to kill more American kids. I mean, you can understand a battle where you're fighting for something where there's liberty at stake, where there's freedom at stake, where the way of living is at stake, where you're defending rights. But this is a battle you have got. You're going to lose in Afghanistan without any question, particularly in this one outpost, where you're given rules of engagement that make it impossible for you to win. And where you're fighting for nothing, nothing. And indeed, bringing the troops back home right now illustrates that so powerfully, and this movie was so powerful in that context, because all those kids and several of them, many of them, died in the battle and before the battle in this outpost. Good kids. What they dying for? What was their life snuffed out for? So some general could write his dissertation. This is Petraeus about how to do a counterinsurgency and nobody cares. That's the thing that really pisses me off. The thing that really, really, really pisses me off is that nobody cares. Nobody stands up to defend these soldiers. Nobody speaks out for them. They're just treated as sacrificial lambs and nobody gives a damn. Not Democrats, not Republicans, not civil rights people, not anti. Nobody. They just die. They volunteered to die, so they volunteered to the army, so who cares? But the movie, it's so obvious that the people in charge don't care. At some point, one of the sergeants reviewing, looking at the field, he says, yeah, I mean, the Taliban's going over on us and if they do, this is what I would do. This is how I would attack us. We can't defend ourselves. We just can't. Doesn't matter how many weapons we have, we can't do it. But even though they know this, nothing is done about it. And as a consequence, I don't know, a dozen kids, some officers, died for no reason, many of them injured. Now again, the heroism of the soldiers, the ability to survive, the ones who do survive, it's truly stunning. I mean, imagine yourself in those circumstances, go watch the movie, watch the movie, and tell me that you don't get tears in your eyes at the end and you don't get furious at what is going on there. And it's all, this movie did well in the box office. It came out last year under COVID, so it was released a video on demand, but it was one of the best-selling video on demand movies last year. And where was the uproar? Where is the disgust? And this is 2006. How many hundreds of Americans have died since then pursuing the same losing goals? The same sacrifice for nothing. All right, this is the movie, The Outpost. I recommend it. It's very well done, particularly the battle scenes. But it's super, super depressing and very violent, although not gory violent. Just violent, violent. And it's just outrageous that this is America. This is America? Not that America I thought we were. I thought at least people cared, you know? What we need today, what I called a new intellectual, would be any man or woman who is willing to think. Meaning, any man or woman who knows that man's life must be guided by reason, by the intellect, not by feelings, wishes, whims, or mystic revelations. Any man or woman who values his life and who does not want to give in to today's cult of despair, cynicism, and impotence, and does not intend to give up the world to the dark ages and to the role of the collectivist brought. All right, before we go on, reminder, please like the show. We've got 163 live listeners right now, 30 likes. That should be at least 100. I figure at least 100 of you actually like the show. Maybe they're like 60 of the Matthews out there who hate it. 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